Fed-up residents claim they have been left in the dark over a series of unexplained power cuts.

Roger Gilbert, of Greenhill Farm in Greenhill Lane, Bingley, blew a fuse when his and ten other nearby homes were left without electricity for more than 14 hours at the weekend.

"This wasn't the first power-cut we've been plagued with since February and I fear it won't be the last," he said.

"I've phoned and e-mailed Yorkshire Electricity to complain about it but I've never had a satisfactory answer from them."

Mr Gilbert, a chartered electrical engineer, said he believed the faults kept happening because the supply could not cope with extra new homes which have been built in the area.

But a Yorkshire Electricity spokesman denied the claim.

Mr Gilbert said: "We've lost power from just a few seconds to hours.

"It keeps happening and we want to know why.

"So many new houses have been built in the area that I believe the old infrastructure is out-dated and just can't cope with the demand.

"We had visitors from France at the weekend and they were not impressed."

A spokesman for Yorkshire Electricity confirmed there had been problems in that area of Bingley.

He said engineers were investigating the faults from the weekend.

But he insisted they were not linked to past power cuts suffered by Greenhill Lane residents.

He said: "They are all totally unrelated.

"It's just unfortunate but we will endeavour to find a long-term solution."

The first power cut on Saturday, February 12, happened when workers had to replace a pole-mounted sub-station.

Yorkshire Electricity confirmed two other interruptions to power had happened on Saturday, March 3, caused by sub-station failures.

The spokesman said engineers had to work throughout the night on Friday to try to solve a disturbance to the electricity network which cut off power to around 53 homes in the Greenhill Lane area just before 6pm.

Power was restored to 40 homes just before 2am on Saturday and by lunchtime engineers had linked the last of the homes up to a generator to feed them through a temporary supply.

The Yorkshire Electricity spokesman said: "It's true we had to get contractors out on Sunday to sort out the generator but we have since located the fault in an underground cable which was responsible for the weekend's blackout out.

"The engineers have said the problem was nothing to do whatsoever with any kind of overload on the supply because of dem-and in that area."

Full power was finally restored to the area by Yorkshire Electricity yesterday.